Nine Questions With Veronica O. Davis

Davis, 33, is co-owner of Nspiregreen, an environmental-sustainability firm in Washington, DC. After she and two friends realized that African-American women in the District of Columbia could benefit hugely from greater exposure to bicycles, they started a club in May 2011 called Black Women Bike DC. In less than two years it has ballooned to include more than 750 members. Bicycling sat down with her at the League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Summit.

Bicycling: How did the group start?
Veronica Davis: I was conveying a message over Twitter about riding by public housing—this little black girl was like, “Mommy, mommy—a black lady on a bike!” It hurt in a sense, because she was so excited because I was the first person she saw on a bike that looked like her. People connect to images that look like them. We thought, you know what, let’s just start a Facebook group.

And it just took off?
We started with three of us. Within 72 hours we had about 60 women. Then we were featured in the Washington Post, and about 48 hours after that article hit we jumped up to about 360. That was in June 2011. Now we have 756 members, and it’s a beautiful thing.

What’s the powerful response suggest to you?
It says that there’s a need to build a community amongst black women, some who bike, some who want to bike. Everyone comes for different reasons, and it’s about something for everyone, and making people feel comfortable. So if someone says I only want to go to the end of my block, that’s all right, we’re going to celebrate you. If you said I’ll do a century, guess what, we’re going to celebrate you too. A woman in our group, she’s biking around Japan right now—we’re celebrating her. It’s really just about celebrating people getting on a bike.

What’s your connection to riding?
To me a bike is about freedom. I take the bus sometimes now, but if I take a bus I’m on someone else’s time schedule. A bike is always there. There’s a sense of freedom—I’m not confined to a specific route. If I want to stop and smell the trees I can stop and smell the trees. If I want to go fast, I can go fast. So it’s about empowering women to have that sense of freedom and not being stuck on someone else’s schedule or agenda.

What kind of rides does the group do?
We have regular monthly rides. We have a no-drop rule; if someone needs to take a break one of our ride marshals will stay with that person. We also do seminars; in the past we’ve done how to ride in the winter and at night, and it was so popular that it was scheduled for two hours, and it lasted three and a half hours, and no one moved. We did a workshop on how to buy a bike. This year a couple of weeks before Bike to Work Day, we’ll have a session on how to ride on the road. A lot of women who are strong cyclists don’t ride on the roads of DC.

What are your goals for these programs?
Our vision is getting women and girls on bikes for fun, health, wellness, and transportation. So some people, they’re doing it for exercise and then think, maybe I can commute. We have an online community where people can ask questions: What type of helmet works for people who have locks? Or, what type of shorts should I get? So it’s an opportunity for people to ask questions that are sometimes very personal, which is why we are very adamant about not allowing men in our Facebook group.